Why is my new fish tank cloudy & smelly?

Question

I have a brand new 29 gal fish tank...3 days old. I have 5 med Koi in it. The water has been clear and clean the first 2 days, but now on the 3rd day it's getting cloudy and smelly...but not a fishy smell. It has a strange funk smell. The smell is wafting into the whole room. I have a good filter system, and a bubble wand. Any ideas?

Answer 1

There are a number of problems leading to your tank being cloudy and smelly.

All too often too many new fish owners make the same common mistakes. Did you wash your tank out properly prior to installing? Did you wash your gravel thru a strainer (and I don't mean just rinse it off)? These are the two leading cause for cloudy water.

Your tank is not cycled properly. See web page.
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm

Do you or are you using a gravel syphon to clean the bottom when doing water changes? (Sorry forgot it is only 3 days old) Did you rinse out your filter and pads prior to installing them?

If you did not rinse the gravel well enough you can do one of two things, stir up the gravel in the tank really well. This will cause all the "dirt" particles to float in your tank. Keep the filter running and do a 20% water change. As long as your water "quality" is fine, do this every other day until the water is clear. Each time, be sure to rinse your filter out as well.

Your tank is OVERLOADED. 5 Medium Koi as you say would measure approximately 15" each. Koi do not stop growing nor is a 4" koi medium it is small. Koi can and do grow up to 3 feet long and won't stop growing because they are in a small tank.

Koi are cold water pond fish and require 1 sq. foot of surface water per inch of fish. Koi are active fish and require higher concentrations of Dissolved Oxygen. Adding an air your bubble want does nothing for the fish or the water. Dissolved O2 comes from the water itself moving. Bubblers move very little water there for add very little to no Dissolved O2 to your tank.

Do your water change everyother day (I know pain in the butt) but if the tank would have been cycled properly in the begining, this would not be happening now.

I would suggest either taking back 4 of your fish or getting a muchbigger fish tank.

Both you and your fish will be happier.

Answer 2

The smell is probably from fish waste (ammonia). Like said above you need to let the tank cycle through first. You could add some fast growing plants like Hygrophila which will absorb the ammonia and other waste (this is the best way, however koi will probably eat plants). You could also "seed" your tank with some benefical bacteria (something like Nutrafin's "Cycle" - the person below said HAGEN, Nutrafin is a Hagen brand :-) ) which will help speed the process. Basically you need the good bacteria to establish itself in your filter in order for it to break down really bad ammonia (NH4) into not so bad (but still bad) Nitrites (NO2) then again into Nitrates (which are pretty harmless - NO3). This is called the nitrogen cycle. You should have waited before introducing - so many - koi to your tank. Koi (and related goldfish) are messy fish and to be honest a 29G tank is not that big.

BTW I have a planted tank with a lot of fish in it and I don't use a filter (well I have a corner filter just to take away dirt etc. from the water - mechanical filtration only), plants do my - chemical - filtering for me. They break down bad chemicals and add oxygen to the water.

Lastly, if the water is green and cloudy you could have "greenwater" which is an algal bloom (I don't think you have greenwater). If it is white and cloudy you probably have a bacterial bloom (most tanks have them at the beginning) bacterial blooms will go away on their own (faster when adding the good bacteria) greenwater is a pain, but can be cured with a UV filter or by blacking out the tank for a few days (cover it and do not look at it even for a second, this will starve the bad algae causing the green water of light, which it needs to survive). BTW the UV in a UV filter will kill algae spores - it will also damage bacteria and fish viruses. So if you have one and want to introduce benificial bacteria to the tank, you'll need to turn it off for a few days (2-3).

I suggest you buy a good book or search online for some forums, this hobby takes a lot of research and study. Good luck!

BTW check out this article, it may help understand some things:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_newtank.htm

Answer 3

It is cloudy because you are experiencing the 'New Tank Syndrome'. This happens when the ammonia from the fish waste mixes with the clean water and it takes about a week for it to clear up and the bacteria to start the ecosystem you have created. Sometimes there is a smell but not usually. Are you overfeeding them? Also since Koi are carp, they have a tendency to excreate more waste than other freshwater fish. Also, you may have overloaded your system right away and may have to do a water change of 25% to eliminate some of the smell. It is recommended that you only place 2 fish in at a time to give the system time to kick in.

Answer 4

Believe it or not your aquarium is too clean. when you keep your aquarium too clean (change too much water, continually wash out your filter with tap water) you are actually removing the beneficial bacteria. the cloudiness which seems to return after a couple of days after you clean your aquarium has been coined "new tank syndrome" and is actually caused by a bacteria (not the beneficial or harmful type) that multiplies in high ammonia water. the best course of action is to cut down on the feeding (less food, less ammonia produced), keep the aquarium light off for about a week (the beneficial bacteria grow better in the dark (or low light conditions), and to add a beneficial bacterial culture (cycle by Hagen). once your aquarium is no longer cloudy do regular water changes (25%) every month (make sure you use an aquarium gravel syphon) and change your filter carbon every month. don't do the water change and filter cleaning (remember this can make your aquarium too clean) at the same time and always make sure your fish eat all of their food within 3 minutes without anything floating to the bottom. you can feed this way 2 time per day and everything should work out in time. Look and every tank has a particular water smell.

Answer 5

Do you have a working undergravel filter? If so and the tank is still cloudy it is probably because bacteria hasn't formed in the gravel yet to break down all of the junk that falls to the bottom of the tank... What is powering the undergravel filter? If it's just an air pump then try getting a 'power head'... That will draw a lot more water through the filter and clean things up quick.

Answer 6

The tank is starting to 'cycle'. This means that the beneficial bacteria normally found in healthy tanks are starting to feed on the fish waste and minerals/metal in the water. This is normal and necessary for the tank. Try not to add any chemicals to the tank that say they clear water, this will only disrupt the process and the water will become cloudy all over again. The cycling process takes anywhere from a week to two months to complete. Be sure and do small water changes every week, but no more than 10% water, otherwise, you will remove the bacteria that have accumulated and the cycle will start all over again. Another way to speed it along is to use distilled or reverse osmosis water when refilling from water changes.

Answer 7

My New Fish Tank

Answer 8

1) you put the fish in the water WAY TOO SOON and the natural bacteria in the filter didnt have enough time to develop. but it can be helped- get "cycle" which promotes the growth of the good bacteria. normally you need to leave it a couple of weeks before putting anything in it.

2) 29 galon tank and 5 koi???? I think they may be too big for the tank.

Answer 9

Ammonia. You will not be able to properly cycle a tank with this much bioload. You can't keep koi in anything this small. The filter will never keep up with the amount of ammonia they produce. Bring them back and get some smaller tropical fish that are more appropriate for that tank.

Answer 10

as others have said, your tank has started the nitrogen cycle.
i would personally take out your fish and rehome them and fishless cycle your tank. your fish will suffer going through the nitrogen cycle. if you decide to keep them you need to do DAILY 20-30% water changes and measure your water parameters.

koi's are pond fish, are they in this tank temporarily over winter? they need a several thousand gallon pond. they are not suited to tank life, and depending on koi type can grow anything from 3ft to a metre in length.